I am

always the student.

I love to be in that position,

bowing, listening, at the feet of all

that I see. This doesn’t require an open mind:

it is the open mind. It never has to take responsibility

for knowing or for not knowing. It receives everything without

defense, without judgment, since judgment would cost it everything

it is. The moment you think you’re someone or you think you have

something to teach, the inner world freezes and becomes

the realm of illusion. That’s what it costs when you

identify yourself as the person who knows.

It’s a concoction of mind. You shrink

down into the teacher:

limited, separate,

stuck.

Byron Katie

nine bows

In

the spring,

at the end of the day,

you should smell

like dirt.

Margaret Atwood

In this

world of ours,

what good does it do for

you to have the praise of others?

For blossoms, the winds of

spring; for the moon,

floating clouds.

Shotetsu 

To the

ordinary person,

the body of humanity seems

vast. In truth, it is neither

bigger nor smaller than

anything else.

To the

ordinary person,

there are others whose awareness

needs raising. In truth, there is no self,

and no other. To the ordinary person,

the temple is sacred and the field

is not. This, too, is a dualism

which runs counter to

the truth.

Those

who are highly evolved

maintain an undiscriminating

perception. Seeing everything, labeling

nothing, they maintain their awareness

of  the Great Oneness. Thus they

are supported

by it.

from Hua hu Ching, Chapter 19

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There is no escape.

You can’t be a vagabond and an artist

and still be a solid citizen, a wholesome, upstanding man.

You want to get drunk, so you have to accept the hangover.

You say yes to the sunlight and pure fantasies, so you

have to say yes to the filth and the nausea.

Everything is within you, gold and mud,

happiness and pain, the laughter

of childhood and the

apprehension

of death.

Say yes

to everything, shirk

nothing. Don’t try to lie to yourself.

You are not a solid citizen. You are not a Greek.

You are not harmonious, or the master of yourself.

You are a bird in the storm. Let

it storm! Let it drive

you!

Herman Hesse